Cancun Resort Massacre: 8 Killed In Attack On Cancun Resort Bar By Mexican Drug Cartel Hitman

Zetas

CANCUN, Mexico – At least eight people were killed when molotov cocktails were thrown into a bar in the Mexican town of Cancun, a resort area popular with U.S. tourists, officials said.

“The death of eight people is confirmed. Six on site — including four women — and two others in hospital, also women,” Quintana Roo prosecutor Francisco Alor Quezada told AFP by telephone.

According to witnesses, six men threw the molotov cocktails at the establishment which had reported two attempts at extortion, apparently by the Zeta drug cartel.

http://www.leaderpost.com/news/killed+attack+Cancun/3464275/story.html#ixzz0yCOzzxsz

CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) – At least eight people were killed when molotov cocktails were thrown into a bar in the Mexican town of Cancun, a resort area popular with US tourists, officials said Tuesday.

“The death of eight people is confirmed. Six on site — including four women — and two others in hospital, also women,” prosecutor Francisco Alor Quezada, from the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, told AFP by telephone.

According to witnesses, six men threw the molotov cocktails at the establishment which had reported two attempts at extortion, apparently by the Zetas drug cartel.

The attack set off a fire which destroyed the bar, in a residential area not frequented by tourists, officials said.

The brutal Zetas, first set up by former paramilitaries in the 1990s, have grown in force since splitting off from the powerful Gulf gang, whom they are now fighting for control of drug trafficking routes.

They are suspected in last week’s massacre of 72 migrants in northeast Mexico and many kidnapping, killing and extortion cases.

Cancun has seen sporadic attacks and gruesome discoveries of bodies in wells and graves as violence has escalated since President Felipe Calderon deployed tens of thousands of soldiers to take on organized crime gangs in 2006.

More than 28,000 have died in drug-related violence nationwide since then, according to official figures.

http://www.canada.com/news/killed+attack+Cancun/3464275/story.html

Climate Gate: IPCC – United Nations International Panel on Climate Change Harshly Rebuked By Investigating Panel of International Experts

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), set up 22 years ago to provide science advice to governments as they try to deal with global warming, needs to overhaul the way it runs itself, according to a report released Monday.

Among those needs: more transparency; a rigorous set of conflict-of-interest rules; wider representation of dissenting views among practicing climate scientists in its final reports; and a limit on the number of reports scientists can take a lead role in producing.

The review and its recommendations come from a panel made up of 12 experts from 10 countries. The members were selected by the InterAcademy Council, an organization representing 15 national academies of science in developed and developing countries.

The review panel, assembled in May at the request of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri, did not address the science of global warming itself. Instead, it focused on management issues raised in controversies that erupted during and after the IPCC issued it last set of climate reports in 2007.

Many of these controversies came to light within the past 10 months. Emails leaked from the University of East Anglia revealed a handful of influential climate scientists displaying a circle-the-wagons mentality as some analysts tried to gain access to their data and analysis methods. Critics alleged that the emails also held evidence of fudged results.

In addition, some global warming skeptics have identified mistakes in the 2007 volumes, including a claim that a warming climate could deprive the Himalayas of their glaciers by 2035. [a claim subsequently retracted by the IPCC – the IPCC was forced to admit that the claim was not supported by data but was, instead, based upon an interview]

Still, “there’s no question that the IPCC’s trust was somewhat dented by all these controversies,” said review-panel chairman Harold Shapiro, an economist and professor emeritus at Princeton University. Panel members “think that what we have recommended will help restore” trust in the IPCC’s work.

Among its 22 recommendations, the panel calls for the adoption of conflict-of-interest policies that cover everyone directly involved in producing the reports. It recommends limiting the IPCC chairman, as well as a handful of other top IPCC participants, to overseeing only one set of periodic climate reports, after which they would be replaced for the next set. And it seeks a more transparent, thorough discussion in IPCC reports of credible dissenting views on aspects of climate research and projections, along with a clearer, more consistent description of uncertainties surrounding conclusions the IPCC reports offer – particularly in the influential summaries for policymakers.

Taken as a whole, the report and its recommendations are “remarkably hard-hitting,” says Roger Pielke Jr., who specialized in science policy at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “It’s not at all the rap on the knuckles that some commentators had expected.”

Assuming the recommendations are adopted as a package, and not picked over, “this could mark the moment when climate science joins the 21st century as far as science advice is concerned,” Dr. Pielke says. “It’s had some practices that were too ad hoc for its prominent role.”

The next step must come from the 194 governments that make up the IPCC. The first opportunity to discuss these recommendations as a group and perhaps act on them comes at the IPCC’s plenary session in Pusan, South Korea, in October.

The next set of IPCC reports is due out in 2013.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0830/IPCC-climate-change-panel-needs-transparency-review-panel-finds

McAuley’s World Comments:

In a strange an obviously desperate act Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri interjected his opinion on Monday, defended the science itself … stating that the science is “sound”. The  InterAcademy Council study and findings offered no such support for the IPCC. The InterAcademy Council did not replicate the studies, a number of research groups are doing that at present, the InterAcademy Council analyzed and criticized the IPCC”s failure to incorporate and follow basic elements of the “scientific method”.

From the InterAcademy Report (PDF LINK BELOW): “We found in the summary for policymakers that there were two kinds of errors that came up — one is the kind where they place high confidence in something where there is very little evidence. The other is the kind where you make a statement … with no substantive value, in our judgment.”Rajendra Pachauri, head of UN climate change body, under pressure to resign:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/30/rajendra-pachauri-un-climate-change-pressure-resign

IPCC report raises fresh questions over Dr Rajendra Pachauri’s leadership

The UN’s climate change panel must introduce a structure to prevent conflicts of interest, according to a report by the world’s top science group that raised fresh questions over the leadership of the body.

In response to accusations that Dr Rajendra Pachauri had compromised his position as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) because of his role in an environmental consultancy, the report described the claims as “troubling”.

The report exposed a number of procedural management failings, highlighting the role held by Dr Pachauri as needing particular scrutiny.

The Indian engineer has been chairman of the IPCC since 2002, renewing his initial six year term in 2008.

However there have been repeated calls for his resignation, most notably following the incorrect claim that the Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035.

The questions over the IPCC led to a review of his organisation by the InterAcademy Council, a grouping of the world’s most prestigious science organisations.

“It was beyond our charge to review the conflict-of-interest controversies that have been reported in the press,” said Prof Harold T. Shapiro, chairman of the investigating committee, “but we did note that the lack of a conflict of interest policy was troubling to many of the stakeholders we heard from.”

He added: “Operating under the public microscope the way IPCC does requires strong leadership, the continued and enthusiastic participation of distinguished scientists, an ability to adapt, and a commitment to openness if the value of these assessments to society is to be maintained.”

Following criticism that the position of chairman was too powerful, the report also suggested that no one should be allowed to serve more than one term. It did not comment on whether Dr Pachauri should be able to serve out his second term.

Dr Benny Peiser, Director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, said Dr Pachauri was now “damaged goods”.

“The criticism of the management process is quite severe,” he said. “It is an indirect call for Dr Pachauri to step down,” he said.

The role of chairman is a part time, unpaid role.

Dr Pachauri has been accused of a conflict of interest in the past because of his other role as leading The Energy Research Institute (Teri), a think tank promoting sustainable development. [and actively engegaed in the trading of “carbon credits” in Europe]

It was alleged that he could have vested interest in proving climate change by business dealings with carbon trading companies. However he was cleared on any financial wrongdoing recently by an independent review.

Dr Pachauri has always made clear that to the IPCC that he as another role as director of TERI.

Asked if he would consider resigning if requested to, he said he would abide by any decision the IPCC made.

Dr Pachauri has stood up in the past against what he called “ideologically driven” attacks on the IPCC.

“The IPCC will be strengthened by the IAC review and by others of its kind this year,” he said.

“We already have the highest confidence in the science behind our assessments.

“We’re now pleased to receive recommendations on how to further strengthen our own policies and procedures,” he added.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7972013/IPCC-report-raises-fresh-questions-over-Dr-Rajendra-Pachauris-leadership.html

ClimateGate Saga Continues – Climate Chief Hid Knowledge Of Bad Data Until After Copenhagen Summit

The Latest Global Warming Scandal – United Nations IPPC Chief Cashing In – $100′s of Millions Made By Putting 1700 Steel Workers Out of Work

A PDF of the InterAcademy Council Report: Climate Change Assessments: Review of the Processes and Procedures of the IPCC

In a related issue: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli continues his attempts to obtain what should be “public research data” from the University of Virginia. The Attorney General has been trying to complete an investigation into whether a prominent global warming proponent may have “doctored research data” to obatin Federal Research funds fraudulently … There is no reason for scienitific reason the “Climate Data” should be held in secret is there? … there is no proprietary interest that could be compromised by a public review and analysis of the data is there? … thew “scienitific methiod” would then dictate a release of the data for “peeer” or “State” review …. if the “data” wasn’t “cooked’ for personal or prefessional benefit, what would one have to fear?

Updated: Judge sides with UVa in climate case, dismissing Cuccinelli demands

An Albemarle County judge has dismissed Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s demand that the University of Virginia turn over documents related to the research of a prominent climate change expert.

Cuccinelli, a vocal climate change skeptic, had been investigating the possibility that climatology professor Michael Mann fraudulently obtained five taxpayer-funded research grants while employed at UVA between 1999 and 2005.

In an opinion issued this morning, Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled that Cuccinelli failed to show a sufficient “reason to believe” that UVA possessed any documents related to Mann that suggested a fraud occurred.

UVA fought Cuccinelli’s demand for documents, saying the attorney general’s investigation violates the principle of academic freedom and would have a chilling effect on scientific research of controversial subjects.

In his ruling, Peatross set aside Cuccinelli’s civil investigative demands “in their entirety, without prejudice to the Commonwealth to proceed according to the law.”

Cuccinelli did not show, Peatross wrote, any evidence that Mann’s work was “misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Peatross added, however, that the attorney general is within his rights to issue CIDs — which carry the legal weight of subpoenas — to investigate taxpayer-funded research grants awarded to professors such as Mann.

Cuccinelli said in a statement that he will send a new CID to UVA to continue his hunt for proof that Mann defrauded Virginia’s taxpayers in obtaining grants that funded his climate change research.

“While this was not an outright ruling in our favor, I am pleased that the judge has agreed with my office on several key legal points and has given us a framework for issuing a new civil investigative demand to get the information necessary to continue our investigation into whether or not fraud has been committed against the commonwealth,” Cuccinelli said.

A UVA spokeswoman said a statement on Peatross’ ruling will be forthcoming.

Mann, who now works at Penn State, said he is “very pleased” the judge set aside Cuccinelli’s subpoenas.

“It is a victory not just for me and the university, but for all scientists who live in fear that they may be subject to a politically motivated witch hunt when their research findings prove inconvenient to powerful vested interests,” Mann said in an e-mail to The Daily Progress. “I’m looking forward now to trying to get back full time to the things I really care about: doing research and extending the forefront of our scientific understanding of the science of climate and climate change, advising students and postdoctoral scholars, and doing the best I can to communicate to the public important scientific findings.

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2010/aug/30/11/judge-sides-uva-climate-case-dismissing-cuccinelli-ar-479678/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/30/judge-blocks-cuccinelli-investigation-into-mann/#more-24180

Reputed Mexican Cartel Boss Captured: Edgar Valdez Villarreal (the Barbie) Taken Into Custody

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias "the Barbie", taken into custody

MEXICO CITY—Texas-born fugitive Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias “the Barbie,” is the third major suspected drug lord to fall in Mexico in the past 10 months and a coup for President Felipe Calderon in his embattled war on powerful cartels.

Valdez, who got his improbable nickname from his fair complexion, is wanted in the United States for allegedly smuggling tons of cocaine and inside Mexico is blamed for a brutal turf war that has included bodies hung from bridges, decapitations and shootouts as he and a rival fought for control of the divided Beltran Leyva Cartel.

Calderon called Valdez “one of the most-wanted criminals in Mexico and abroad” in a Tweet. He vowed that operations to bring down the rest of his gang will continue following his arrest Monday in Mexico State, an area that borders Mexico City.

The arrest was the culmination of a yearlong intelligence operation, the Public Safety Department said in a statement.

The statement offered no other details, but included a photograph of Valdez sporting stubble as he kneels on the ground, a police officer’s hand on his shoulder.

SEE: Mexican Drug Cartel Violence: Mexican Marines arrest presumed leader of Beltran Leyva Cartel – Sergio Villarreal Barragan taken into custody

Valdez was charged in May in U.S. District Court in Atlanta with distributing thousands of pounds of cocaine from Mexico to the eastern U.S. from 2004 to 2006.

U.S. authorities had offered a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to his capture, and the Mexican government offered a similar amount.

There was no word from Mexican authorities on any extradition plans.

Aturo Beltran Leyva

Mexican authorities say Valdez has been battling for control of the Beltran Leyva Cartel since its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a December shootout with marines in Cuernavaca, a favorite weekend getaway south of the Mexican capital.

The fight against Hector Beltran Leyva — a brother of Arturo — has made a battleground of what was once a relatively peaceful pocket of the country and brought the drug war ever closer to Mexico City. Their fight has spread westward toward the resort city of Acapulco.

The U.S. State Department says Valdez headed a group of assassins for the Beltran Leyva gang. He “is the person most responsible for pushing the battle into central and southern Mexico,” the department says on its website.

Carlos Beltran Leyva

Valdez’s capture is the government’s latest victory against the crumbling Beltran Leyva Cartel. Two other Beltran Leyva brothers have been arrested under President Felipe Calderon, who in 2006 deployed thousands of federal police and soldiers to fight drug traffickers in their strongholds.

Drug-gang violence has surged since the offensive began, claiming an unprecedented 28,000 lives. But the crackdown has brought down several major traffickers.

Aside from the Beltran Leyvas, drug lord Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel was killed in a gunbattle last month when soldiers raided his home in Guadalajara. Coronel was the No. 3 in the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world’s most powerful drug trafficking gangs.

Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel - The "King of Crystal"

Valdez, 37, was born in the border city of Laredo, Texas, and belonged to the Sinaloa cartel until its split from the Beltran Leyvas in 2008 — one of many divisions among Mexican cartels in recent years that have fueled the country’s gruesome gang violence.

Experts said Valdez’s capture could be especially valuable because of the intelligence he might provide on other top traffickers, including Sinaloa chief Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord.

“Because they caught La Barbie alive, he will be a very important source of information against El Chapo,” said Raul Benitez, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who studies the drug trade. “La Barbie was once the bodyguard of El Chapo Guzman.”

Much of the most recent violence in central Mexico has been directed at Valdez’s allies.

The decapitated bodies of four men were hung from a bridge in Cuernavaca last

Joaquin Guzman, El Chapo

week, along with a message threatening allies of “La Barbie” and signed by the gang led by Hector Beltran Leyva. Two more bodies were hung from bridges near Acapulco later in the week, although no gang claimed responsibility.

Benitez said the violence in the region could drop over time, as the government has disrupted Valdez’s crusade to create a new cartel from his split with the Beltran Leyvas. But it won’t initially, he added, because the lieutenants in the gang always fight for control immediately after a big boss is brought down.

And Mexico’s violence overall is not expected to drop because other, more powerful gangs are fighting in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and along the northeastern border with the U.S., where 72 migrants were found massacred last week in what is believed to be the deadliest drug cartel attack to date.

La Barbie’s “arrest will be a public relations coup for the Mexican government, even though it will do little to quell the violence in places like Juarez and Monterrey,” the U.S.-based security think tank Stratfor said in a report.

U.S. prosecutors say they used a federal wiretap of a related case in Atlanta in January 2008 to identify Valdez as the source of thousands of kilograms of cocaine that were imported into the U.S. from 2004 to 2006.

Cartel Beheadings in Baja

Gamaliel Aguirre Tavira

Witnesses said some truckloads traveling from Laredo to Atlanta carried more than 650 pounds of cocaine. The workers sent shipments of money, often containing several million dollars in cash, back to Mexico in tractor-trailer trucks, according to the court records.

Mexican authorities had been closing in on La Barbie’s allies in recent weeks. On July 10, marines raided a house in Acapulco and captured Gamaliel Aguirre Tavira, suspected regional chief of the Valdez faction.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2010/08/31/mexico_says_drug_lord_the_barbie_captured/?page=1

The War In Iraq: Obama Administration Politics – Few Iraqis Cheer US Departure

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, walks with Gen. Ray Odierno, right, after he arrived, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Aug. 30, 2010.: HOW DISRESPECTFUL - DON'T THE TROOPS IN IRAQ RATE A PAIR OF SLACKS AND SOCKS MR. BIDEN.

BAGHDAD – As Vice President Joe Biden presides over the formal end to U.S. combat operations in Iraq, few Iraqis are cheering the American exit.

Iraqis, who for years have railed against the U.S. occupation, are generally happy to see that the American presence won’t be endless. But there is also considerable trepidation about whether Iraq can go it alone.

“It’s not the right time,” said Johaina Mohammed, a 40-year-old teacher from Baghdad. “There is no government, the security is deteriorating, and there is no trust.”

Just under 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq — down from a peak of nearly 170,000 at the height of the military surge in 2007. Those troops will be focused on training and assisting the Iraqi military, and will no longer be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by Iraqi forces.

Underscoring the shift, Biden was making a new appeal to Iraqi leaders Tuesday, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to end the political deadlock and seat a new government. March 7 parliamentary elections left Iraq without a clear winner, and insurgents have since exploited the uncertainty to hammer Iraqi security forces.

Iraqi forces are vastly improved and attacks have plummeted since the dark days of 2006 and 2007. But rarely a day goes by without some loss of life, and spectacular attacks such as the violence on Wednesday that killed 56 people still happen with disturbing regularity.

Biden and U.S. officials have downplayed suggestions they are abandoning Iraq at a crucial time. The vice-president Tuesday said militants’ attempts to again wreck havoc in Iraq have been unsuccessful.

“Notwithstanding what the national press says about increased violence, the truth is, things are still very much different, things are much safer,” Biden said Tuesday in comments to al-Maliki before the two met privately.

But many Iraqis do not share his optimism.

The fear of political divisions, aggravated by the struggle for control of Iraq’s oil potential, is ever present. Some Iraqis worry that without the American soldiers, their country will revert to a dictatorship or split along religious and ethnic fault lines.

“They should go, but the security situation is too fragile for the Americans to withdraw now,” said Mohammed Hussein Abbas, a Shiite from the town of Hillah south of Baghdad. “They should wait for the government to be formed and then withdraw.”

U.S. military officials say the reduction in troop numbers doesn’t hinge on Iraq forming a new government, but on the ability of Iraqi forces to handle security on their own.

The decision to draw down to 50,000 troops was made by President Barack Obama, and is not part of the security agreement between Iraq and the U.S. Under that agreement, all American troops are to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, a timeline Obama vowed during a weekend address to follow.

The dwindling U.S. military presence has deepened concerns that Iraq will be taken over by its neighbors — namely Iran — who many think is waiting to fill the power vacuum created by the departing Americans.

“The U.S. withdrawal will put Iraq into the lap of Iran,” said Ali Mussa, a 46-year-old engineer from eastern Baghdad. Iran and Iraq are both majority Shiite countries. And Iran has already capitalized on the U.S.-led overthrow of its arch enemy Saddam Hussein to secure greater leverage in Iraq, using centuries-old religious and cultural ties.

Even former Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, who supported armed resistance against two American assaults on the city in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, are dismayed at U.S. troops leaving after they joined forces and fought extremists together.

“Of course we were against the occupation, but in 2007 the Americans came up with a good plan for fighting al-Qaida, not Iraq,” said Col. Abdelsaad Abbas Mohammad, a Fallujah commander in the government-supported Sunni militia, known as the Awakening Councils. “Americans have committed many mistakes, but they did not go into houses and chop people’s heads off.”

The Sunni militias, also known as the Sons of Iraq, were a key element in turning the tide against Sunni-led terrorist groups such as al-Qaida, and the American military began paying the militias to fight on their side. That responsibility now lies with the Iraqi government, which is also supposed to incorporate many of them into government ministries. But many Sons of Iraq complain the government is turning its back on the militias, failing to pay them on time or find them good jobs.

In the three provinces that make up the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, the American military departure is also cause for concern. The Americans have often been perceived as the protectors of the minority Kurdish population, which was repressed under Saddam, but later carved out a relative oasis of stability in northern Iraq.

Othman Ahmed, 38, and a lawyer from the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, said Iraqi politicians would like to return Iraq to the strong centralized government of the former regime — meaning the Kurds’ hard-won autonomy could be at jeopardy. The friction between the Kurds and the central government is considered a potential flashpoint. Both claim a wide swath of territory stretching from the Syrian to the Iranian border, which includes the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Many Iraqis also had higher hopes for their quality of life after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, especially after years cut off from the rest of the world under Saddam. Now people have access to the Internet, satellite television and an assortment of consumer goods such as new cars, laptop computers, and mobile phones. But they struggle with constant shortages of electricity and water, the capital is crisscrossed with concrete barriers and parents worry about their children’s education after thousands of teachers fled the country.

Riyadh Hadi, a 47-year-old Shiite from the southern city of Basra, said the frustration over power shortages and unemployment has reached the boiling point.

“The U.S withdrawal will worsen the situation,” Hadi said. “Corruption is now clandestine, but after the American withdrawal it will be out in the open and widespread among Iraqi officials.”

To many Iraqis, the U.S. drawdown and emphasis on the end of combat operations looks to many Iraqis as if Obama is playing to domestic politics instead of assessing what is truly right for Iraq,

“The Americans should think about the door they’re walking out of,” said Sheik Ali Hatem Sulaiman al-Dulaimi, an influential tribal leader from Anbar province. “This is the destiny of a nation.”

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2010/08/31/fearing_the_future_few_iraqis_cheer_us_departure/

A REPORT FROM CNN – IRAQI TROOP SURGE – TROOP WITHDRAWAL

Obama On The Surge

 

McAuley’s World Comment: Obama & Biden – The wrong policy, at the wrong time in the wrong place. A cheap domestic policy ploy that will one day have catastropihic consequences for the American and Iraqi peoples. 

The Ground Zero Mosque Question: How far away is far enough … to build a Mosque at Ground Zero …

How far away is far enough … to build a Mosque at Ground Zero …  

First – some basic things we might agree upon…

 

Artist Rendering Ground Zero Memorial Park

 1) An 8 acre “Memorial Garden” with approximately 450 trees, 2 Memorial Ponds where the names of the ” 2700 victims will be “engraved” and a Museum are planned … a “Memorial Garden” or “cemetery” for the 2700 … the first trees were planted this weekend on 08/28/2010.

2). Every Mosque in the world shares one thing with every other Mosque in the world … do you know what it is? It is called the “adhan” … which many Westerners incorrectly translate as the “Muslim call to prayer”, the literal translation is the “Call to Islam”.

3). The prayer lasts from 8 to 20 minutes depending on the “caller” and takes place 5 times a day between dawn and dusk, 7 days a week, 365 times a year … the “Call” is “broadcast from speakers atop of the Mosque … and as this Mosque will be located 1 block from Ground Zero – yes one block – you start at the corner of W Broadway and Barclay and walk one block north and you are there, the Mosque will be built on the right hand side … W Broadway and Barclay, the corner where the original WTC #7 stood … On the longest day of the summer, (assuming 16 hours of daylight) the “Call” will be heard approximately once every 3 hours  .. on the shortest day of the year (assuming 8 hours of daylight) the “Call” will be heard every 90 minutes …

Artist Rendering of 8 Acre Memorial Park At Ground Zero

4). The “Call to Islam” is intended, by design, to “proselytize” or “recruit” people to Islam … Google ‘adhan” and select an Islamic site and you will read, “It is intended to bring to the mind of every believer and non-believer the substance of Islamic beliefs, or its (Islam’s) spiritual ideology. As the Mosque will be located 1 block away and will be 11 stories tall… the “Call to Islam” will cascade down on all those in the “park” 5 times a day for as long as the Mosque is 1 block away … visitors and the “permanent guests” alike will be subject to the daily intrusion of the “Call” on their acts of prayer and remembrance… or as an intrusion on their eternal place of rest … 5 times a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. 

5). The issue is not as simple as a “Freedom of Religion” issue … is it… the question is how to accommodate “conflicting religions” or “competing religions” in the same place at the same time …

Ground Memorial Pool - Victims Names Will Be Inscribed Around The Pool

6). The “Memorial Garden” at Ground Zero is a “Public Memorial Garden” or “Public Cemetery” … I can assure you unequivocally that if we “magically” transported the “killing fields in Bosnia” where 8000 Muslims were killed in cold blood during the so called “ethnic cleansing” or “Srebrenica Massacre” … to Ground Zero and then suggested that a “Christian Church” would be built 1 block away, you know, to “build bridges”, and that the “Church” would broadcast “Christian Prayers” through “loudspeakers” across the “Memorial Garden” 5 times a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year … you’d hear a resounding “I think not” … and that would be the appropriate thing to say, the appropriate response … the building permits would never be granted and the denial of permits would be cheered not protested … For those of you who are not familiar with the Bosnian – Serbian Civil War … the United States Military intervened on behalf of the Muslim population and brought the genocide to a halt. Rent or download the DVD “Behind Enemy Lines” … A movie based on actual events. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_Enemy_Lines_(film)

7) The issue isn’t what goes on inside the Mosque … or what goes on inside your home … the issue is what comes out of the Mosque or your home and how that affects “the rest of the world on the outside” …. and it is this issue that eliminates the false claims that there is some type of mythical “Constitutional Right” to build a “House of Worship” where ever you want or might own property … a right exists to freedom of worship … but the right is a limited one not an unlimited one … Example: The Jehovah’s Witnesses can knock on your door to “proselytize” or “recruit” you to their faith, they cannot enter your “church” or a “public cemetery” to do so …

Arlington National Cemetery: 624 Acres, 300,000 graves. Ground Zero: 8 acres, 2700 graves

8). This isn’t a “freedom of religion” issue and the President should know this full well … This issue is one of balancing competing “freedoms” that are equal … everyone has the right to ball their hand into a fist and jump and spin around with wild abandon … that right ends when your “balled up hand” makes contact with another’s nose … in this instance the “balled up hand” is the “Call to Islam” and the “nose” belongs to the non-Muslims who want their right to visit the Memorial Garden without the intrusion of the “Call to Islam” respected … the “nose” belongs to the relatives of the departed who believe the “Call” is an unnecessary intrusion into the “eternal rest” of their departed loved ones… The inescapable point is this … the Mosque can be located anywhere … not so for Ground Zero … despite our best efforts … we will never locate all the bodies.     

9). Hopefully common sense will prevail and the Mosque will be moved far enough away from “Ground Zero” so that those who visit the Memorial Park can do so without the unnecessary intrusion of the “Call to Islam” cascading down around them during their visit … that the “eternal resting spot” of so many will be undistrubed.  If not, the American legal system will prevent an unconstitutional governmental endorsement of Islam as our state religion and the ‘Ground Zero Mosque” will be moved or prohibited by a Court from broadcasting the “Call to Islam” down upon the “Ground Zero Memorial Park” …

USS Arizona Memorial Pearl Harbor

For those of you who might mock, “what’s the problem… it’s just a “prayer” … the problem lies with the fact that the words of the prayer … ““In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most compassionate” and “Allah is the greatest!” , were repeated or chanted as the the 911 attackers crashed their planes or slit the throats of flight crews and passengers on 9-11. In fact, these same words,” “Allahu Akbar“, are reported to be the last words spoken by Major Nadal Hassan, before he jumped up on a table and opened fire, murdering 13 at Fort Hood, Texas. The suicidal Jihadist cry of  “Allahu Akbar“ is as infamous as the suicidal cry of “Bonzai” in World War II. What is a “Call” to worship for one is a bitter reminder of a senseless, cruel and incredibly violent taking of innocent life for thousands … An incredibly thoughtless and insensitive suggestion by the Mosque supporters … just what was the President of the United States thinking?

SEE: The Ground Zero Imam – Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf; The Wrong Man, The Wrong Mosque, The Wrong Place, The Wrong Time…

Ground Zero Imam: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf – Denier, Defender and Apologist For the Genocide in Dafur, the Sudanese President and the Janjaweed/Militia.

Imam behind NYC Mosque Faces Divisions over Center

McAuley’s World Comments In Blue

What absolute nonsense… it is well known that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf refuses to condemn HAMAS  but did you know Imam Rauf also refuses to acknowledge or condemn the Genocide in Dafur, Sudan?  

 

Genocide Arrest Warrant Poster - Sudanese President

“12 July 2010 – UNITED NATIONS – The International Criminal Court (ICC) today issued a second arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, adding genocide to the list of charges for crimes he has allegedly committed in the war-ravaged Darfur region.”. “In March 2009 the Sudanese leader became the first sitting head of State to be indicted by the Court, which charged him with two counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity.”

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27361&Cr=Darfur&Cr1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/14/sudan.warcrimes1

The Sudanese government has orchestrated and taken part in “large-scale international crimes” in Darfur, a high-level UN human rights team said today. Headed by the Nobel peace laureate Jody Williams, the UN assessors found the Sudanese government was responsible for waging a ruthless campaign resulting in war crimes and human rights abuses.”The principal pattern is one of a violent counter-insurgency campaign waged by the government of the Sudan in concert with Janjaweed/militia, and targeting mostly civilians. Rebel forces are also guilty of serious abuses of human rights and violations of humanitarian law”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/mar/12/sudan.jamessturcke  

Imam Rauf refuses to even recognize the genocide, never mind condemn the genocide.

The U.N. estimates that 300,000 people have been killed and another 2.7 million forced from their homes… http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27361&Cr=Darfur&Cr1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/14/sudan.warcrimes1

Amid the killing of tens of thousands of people, women in Darfur’s towns, villages and camps have experienced grave human rights abuses, including abductions, sexual slavery, torture and forced displacement at the hands of the Janjawid. As Amnesty International reported in July; women and girls as young as 8 are being raped and used as sex slaves in the conflict area, despite guarantees by the Sudanese government to disarm the Janjawid. These women and girls are being attacked not only to dehumanize them, but also to humiliate, punish, control, inflict fear upon, displace and persecute the community to which they belong.

The Janjawid have acted with full impunity and with the full knowledge or acquiescence of the government army, and the government of Sudan has not charged a single member of the Janjawid or of the armed forces with committing rape or kidnapping. In fact, the mass rapes ongoing in Darfur are war crimes and crimes against humanity that the international community is doing little to stop.

http://www.womensenews.org/story/commentary/040818/help-stop-violence-against-women-darfur  

There is an undeniable and overwhelming international consensus that genocide is taking place in Dafur. Imam Rauf refuses to even acknowledge the genocide, let alone condemn it… Contrary to what the liberal MSM is spinning … “Bridge Building” is not always a “positive” endeavor,  sometimes it is preferable to keep the river between you and what is on the other side. Just ask the women and children of Dafur. They have “No Where To Turn”.”Nowhere to Turn” is the title of a report documenting the scope and long-term impact of rape and other sexual violence experienced by women who fled attacks on their villages in Darfur and are now refugees in neighboring Chad. This scientific study was conducted in partnership with Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI). http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/report-2009-05-31.html

Dafur - Violence aganst woman

Imam Rauf, through the Cordoba Initiative, continues to act as denier, defender and apologist for the genocide in Dafur, the Sudanese President and the Janjaweed/militia.  

http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/cordoba_initiative_unveils_new_push_in_sudan/

http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/rethinking_sudan_problems_remain_but_there_are_opportunities_for_the_us-sud/                   

 http://edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/10/27/rape.darfur/

Imam behind NYC Mosque Faces Divisions over Center  

 

Artist Rendering Ground Zero Memorial Park

NEW YORK

—Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has long worked to bridge divisions, be they fissures between interfaith husbands and wives or political chasms separating the United States and the Muslim world. The 61-year-old clergyman is now in the midst of a polarizing political, religious and cultural debate over plans for a multistory Islamic center that will feature a mosque, health club and theater about two blocks north of ground zero.

He is one of the leaders of the Park 51 Project, but has largely been absent from the national debate over the implications of building a Muslim house of worship so close to where terrorists killed more than 2,700 people.

Though Rauf has said the center, which could cost more than $100 million, would serve as a space for interfaith dialogue, moderate Muslim practice and peaceful prayer, critics say it will create a base for radical, anti-American Islam. Some critics have also asked where the funding for the center might originate and whether it may come from sources linked to Muslim extremists.

Artist Rendering of 8 Acre Memorial Park At Ground Zero

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, called the backers of the project  “radical Islamists.” “They’re trying to make a case about supremacy” with the center, he said.

The American Jewish Committee has said that while Park51’s leaders have a right to build their center, they must “fully reveal” their sources of funding and “unconditionally condemn” terrorism inspired by Islamist ideology before they can obtain the organization’s support.

Those who know Rauf and have worked with him say that he is anything but extreme in his beliefs or intentions.

“He is one of the really important Muslim leaders in America, working for and working with other religions,” said the Rev. James Parks Morton, the former dean of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine who has known Rauf and his family for more than 30 years. “He’s a very, very conciliatory, intellectual guy.”

During the past few months, Rauf has been in Malaysia, where his family has long-standing ties, and on a State Department-financed goodwill tour of Gulf countries.

Through a spokesman and his wife, he declined to speak with The Associated Press in recent weeks. His few interviews lately have been with local Arabic media during his State Department tour.

He told the daily Bahrain newspaper Akhbar Al-Khaleej on Aug. 24 that he blamed the news media, in part, for strained relations between Muslims and Americans. Rauf said the media “has succeeded in portraying stereotypical images, focusing on the negative and criticizing the other.”

[What role does the media play in Dafur, Sudan? Does the Imam believe the media has created a false “impression” of the genocide in Dafur? Shockingly, the answer is yes! The Imam will tell you the genocide in Dafur is, in fact, a fiction of the Western media.]

Ground Memorial Pool - Victims Names Will Be Inscribed Around The Pool

With Rauf largely absent from the debate, opponents have scoured past statements and critics portray the imam as tone-deaf to the sensitivities of families who lost relatives on Sept. 11. They argue he should forthrightly condemn Arab political movements such as Hamas that the U.S. government has designated as terrorist organizations.

Asked in June by WABC-AM whether he believed the State Department was correct in designating Hamas as a terrorist organization, Rauf gave a winding response: “I am not a politician. … The issue of terrorism is a very complex question. … I do not want to be placed … in a position of … where I am the target of one side or another.”

[Evil is evil and should be called what it is …. there is no room for equivocation]

Rauf rarely deviates in his interviews, speeches and books from a core message of the need for interfaith dialogue to resolve religious conflicts. What emerges is a portrait of a man who has passionately argued that Islam is inherently compatible with American life, and that each is enriched by the other.

[Then the Imam should stand and call for the acceptance of a universal right to “Freedom of Religion” and ask that his fellow Imams and the leaders in every Muslim Counrty and every other land of the world open their borders and welcome those who do not share the Muslim faith and that these people be allowed to establish  or re-establish Synagogues, Temples and Churches throughout Muslim lands … to put into practice the words of the Prophet Mohammed, “…There is no compulsion in religion…” (Quran 2:256),  because without such a statement and such actions Islam is not “inherently compatible with American life” … Why would the Imam not make such a call on behalf of “freedom of religion” everywhere? ] 

[… “to resolve religious conflict”,  how then does one resolve the “relgious conflict” in Dafur when the “conflict’ takes the form of genocide and one will not admit that genocide is taking place … genocide is not a “religious conflict” that can be “negotiated” … genocide is an evil and genocide must be ended not “negotiated” … one cannot compromise on genocide]

He has strongly opposed acts of violence in the name of Islam.

[Well, what absolute nonsense – to begin with Imam Rauf denies the genocide in Dafur, and is a major apologist for the Sudanese Regime charged with War Crimes by the U.N. International Criminal Court …] 

“The Quran allows fighting only in defense — when we are attacked or thrown from our homes or denied our basic rights because of what we choose to believe,” he writes in his 2004 book.

Terrorist Group Al-Shebab Beheads 7 "Christian Spies"

 [One of the reasons for the genocide in  Dafur is that the native Sudanese African farmers are “animists” and follow the ancient beliefs of their ancestors and refuse to surrender or “submit” to the Quran … The Islamists and Imam Rauf refuse to permit the African Sudanese’ the right to a freedom of their own ancestral religions. Animist: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/animist ]

“But even in those cases where fighting is allowed, the Quran never allows the killing of innocent people.”

[Why then does Imam Rauf refuse to acknowledge and condemn the genocide in Dafur?]

The annex of his book includes a 2001 fatwa, or religious ruling, signed by five Islamic scholars, that permits Muslims to fight for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

He also writes that there is no circumstance under which the Prophet permitted suicide, and says so-called “martyrdom operations” are unsupported by Islam.

“It is a phenomena that no civilized society — in the Muslim world or the West — should be content to accept,” he said.  

 

Boys, 15 & 16 years old executed for "homosexuality"

[An interesting phrase and concept, “a phenomena that no civilized society … should be content to accept“. Don’t civilized societies believe in “Freedom of Religion” for all, don’t civilized societies condemn genocide and don’t “civilized societies” condemn terroists orgainizations like HAMAS?]

Rauf was born in Kuwait, the son of an Egyptian imam and noted Islamic scholar, Muhammad Abdul Rauf, who came to New York City in the 1960s and helped lead efforts to establish the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, the city’s first building designed as a mosque. The multimillion-dollar project took more than 25 years and opened in 1991. The elder Rauf also led the Islamic Center of Washington before taking a job in Malaysia.

The younger Rauf didn’t follow his father’s path into religion until later in life. He studied physics at Columbia University and in New Jersey, and dabbled in teaching, sales and real estate. He married, first to an American who converted to Islam, and a second time to a Malaysian woman. He has two children from each of the marriages.

[When was the Imam at Columbia? Did he study at Columbia with President Obama? Neither Obama’s nor Rauf’s

Mass Execution of Christian "dissidents" by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court

 records from Columbia have been made available for public review … can you name even one prior President who has kept his educational records secret from the American public? 

I find this curious, not for some grand conspriracy theory, but because my tax dollars are paying for Rauf’s tour of the Middle East and I want to know if that might be due to a personal friendship between Obama and Rauf, one that may have started at Columbia University. Obvioulsy, the MSM failed to properly vet either of these men …]

In the late 1990s, he married his third wife, Daisy Khan, who has actively supported the Islamic center proposal.

In 1983, Rauf was asked to lead prayers at a small mosque in lower Manhattan, 12 blocks from the World Trade Center site and near the Park51 project. The mosque, Masjid al-Farah, was created by a Sufi order called Nur Ashki Jerrahi, currently led by a woman, which means the order of light and love. Sufism is a mystical tradition that emphasizes a direct and personal experience of God through chanting and other acts of devotion, and is known for adapting to local culture.

[ http://www.allaboutreligion.org/sufism.htm – The author of the article has failed to note that the proposed “Ground Zero Mosque ” has nothing to do with the Sufi Sect. There are no Islamic states which regard themselves as officially Sufi. Sufism is characterized by the veneration of local saints and by brotherhoods that practice their own rituals. Sufis organize themselves into “orders” or groups, called Tariqas. These groups are headed by a leader called a Shaykh who is considered the most spiritual man with the most Taqwa among them. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/islam-sufi.htm] 

Rauf is especially popular among young, urban professionals.

[ http://www.amnesty.name/en/news-and-updates/heavy-sentences-against-jailed-iranian-baha%E2%80%99i-religious-minority-leaders-condemned– ]

CRIME: Adultery SENTENCE: Beheading

Author Asra Nomani said she once attended a retreat organized by Rauf and Khan, and noted that Rauf allowed parallel prayer sections for men and women — a rare practice. In the majority of mosques, women sit behind men, shielded by a room divider.

“Imam Feisal, he has always been on a moderate course — many of us would call it a liberal-progressive course,” said Saleemah Abdul, 36, who works for the United Nations and is editor of a book on American Muslim women. “He has promoted women’s leadership, youth leadership in a time and a place where many Muslims felt isolated and alienated.”

[Liberal-Progressive? Is this what she means by Liberal-Progressive behavior? Parallel prayer sections? Wouldn’t a “Liberal-Progressive” publicly acknowledge a universal right to freedom of religion, that all men and woman are created equally and that all people are made in the image of God; Muslim, Jew – Hindu – Anamist and Christian, believer and non-believer alike, and that equal rights between the sexs are God given, not a creation of man. Wouldn’t a “Liberal-Progessive”  call upon all world leaders to acknowledge the same, specifically, that the leaders in Muslim lands recognize these basic rights of all mankind. If this is not so than how can Islam be “inherently compatible with American life”. Tell me do good “Liberal -Progressive Muslim’s” deny and defend genocide these days? Liberal – Progressive Islam with it’s “parallel prayer sections” for men and women and it’s “parellel systems of justice” for believer and non-believer …]

Rauf helped to establish the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, two organizations with missions to build dialogue between Muslims and the West.

[See the links above and the Imam’s actual letters from the Cordoba Initiative to the American Muslim Magazine, concerning what one might think is, based upon the Imam’s letters, a “genocide-less” Dafur].

His travels have been financed partly by the U.S. government, which has been sending him on diplomatic trips to

Public Executions Followed Protest of Iranian Election 2010

 Muslim nations since the Bush administration. Contributions to his nonprofit organizations have come from American groups like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Ford Foundation, government agencies in Qatar and the Netherlands, and the Kingdom Foundation, a philanthropy affiliated with Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the largest shareholder in Citigroup.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Rauf was called on repeatedly by news organizations to help explain to Americans why the U.S. was so hated by some factions in the Muslim world.

[Can he now explain to us why the “Muslim’s Factions” are so hated in Dafur today? Can the Imam explain the Muslim world’s replusion to the freedom of religion, revulsion to freedom of speech, freedom of expression and equality of the sexes and how this revulsion lies at the root of Islam’s replusion to all that is “inherently compatible with American life “ ] 

Some of his comments then have now been seized on by critics as evidence of anti-American views.

Iraqi Army Invades Kuwait

“We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaida has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims, he said in a 2005 lecture in Australia. “You may remember that the U.S.-led sanction against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children. This has been documented by the United Nations.”

[What a strange analogy for a “Liberal/Progressive”; Is he refering to the sanctions approved by 114 member countries of the United Nations, sanctions that were put in place after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the Regime of Suddam Hussien’s continued “human rights violations”,”acts of genocide’ and “crimes against humanity”, the acts that ultimately led to the conviction and execution of Hussein by the Iraqi people …  http://www1.american.edu/TED/iraqsanc.htm 

Has the Imam been asked his opinion about the execution of Saddam Hussien? Were the Iraqi people justified in their actions? Was the execution a “just act” under Muslim Law as he understands it? 

Given this statement by the Imam and the Imam’s failure to condemn HAMAS, shouldn’t the MSM ask the Imam his

Mass Funeral Victims Hussein's Poison Gas Attack

opinion of the current sanctions against Iran? To specifically ask the Imam his opinion … will the sanctions against Iran provide justification for the Imam to one day compare the terrorist activities of a rogue group of militant extremists to the unified actions taken by the United Nations against Iran? Could the Iranian sanctions serve to  justify some other terrorist attack in the Imam’s mind? A Liberal? A Progressive?]  

Rauf told an interviewer in July that about a decade ago he envisioned a global association of Muslim community centers modeled after the Young Men’s Christian Association, serving as centers of interfaith dialogue and spreading moderate Islam worldwide.

The first of these Cordoba Houses, as he initially referred to them, would be established in New York City.

[The quetion that begs to be asked is this, “and is it your intent that these Centers replace the YMCA’s, that your “Centers” will act to the exclusion or explusion of  YMCA’s throughout the world as Mosques have acted to forcibly replace Synagogues, Churches and Temples throughout the Muslim world? Is your goal, first and foremost, not interfaith dialogue but to spread Islam?]

Iraqi Troops Arrive in Halabja After Gas Attack - 5000 Murdered

“Our stated objective is to establish this as a launching point, as a headquarters if you want, of a global understanding, of a moderate Islam that is true to its fundamental principles,” He told the New York-based Intersections International, a group that has endorsed the Islamic center.

[Coincidentally, this is the same group that employed Michael Enright the man who slashed New York City Taxi Driver Ahmed H Shari.

 What did the Imam just say? Did the Imam just say the “Mosque would serve as a headquarters for the launching point of an Islam that is true to its fundamentalist principles”?. I, for one, believe he did … I for one, want a clear definition of the Imam’s “moderate Islam”, especially a “moderate Islam … true to it’s fundamentalist principles’ …]

 “And to accuse us as being the opposite of that flies in the face off our stated vision, our mission, my track record and everything I’ve ever done or stood for.”

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/08/28/imam_behind_nyc_mosque_faces_divisions_over_center/?page=1

Twelve Questions For Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

1). Will you acknowledge the genocide in Dafur?

2). Do you acknowledge the charges of “War Crimes” brought by the United Nations International Criminal Court against the regime in the Sudan?

3). Will you condemn the genocide in Dafur?

4). Do you, as an individual, recognize an international right, an unalienable right, of all people throughout the world to worship or not worship, as they choose, without fear of harm, an international right to freedom of religion for all people?

5). Do you call upon all leaders, in all lands and of all faiths to recognize this right?

6). Will you call upon the civil, religious and most importantly, the theocratic leaders throughout the world to reopen the places of worship that they may have closed or may have been closed by their predecessors, within their lands and to permit the free and unencumbered exercise of the religion of choice by all people in all lands? If not, please explain how your position ”is inherently compatible with American life”?7). Will you acknowledge a universal right of equality between the sexes and call for an end to the “crimes against humanity” being committed in Dafur, Sudan? Will you call for an end to the barbaric and sexist practices of mutilating, stoning and beheading of women, whenever these actions might be occurring throughout the world? If you refuse to condemn these actions will you explain how these actions are “inherently compatible with American life”?

8). Will you call for an immediate end to the barbaric practice of executing individuals because of their sexual orientation and for an end to the equally barbaric practice of drugging and raping virgin’s prior to their execution. (“Members of Iran’s feared Basij militia forcibly marry female virgin prisoners the night before scheduled executions, raping their new “wives” and making it religiously acceptable to execute them, a self-professed member of the paramilitary group says… ” –    http://www.news.com.au/iran-virgin-prisoners-raped-for-legal-executions/story-0-1225752873650 ; Google “Virgin Rape Iran” for a long list of articles condemning this barbaric practice )

9). You have refused to acknowledge or condemn HAMAS as a terrorist organization. The Charter of HAMAS states that, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it”. http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

Absent a general condemnation of HAMAS, will you as an Iman and a purported “Liberal/Progressive Muslim American leader”, denounce and condemn this specific component of the HAMAS charter, that your faith, Islam, has the right to ”obliterate” any other People, Race, Religion or Country?  Certainly, you must be willing to condemn the basic “concept” that any faith, be it “Islam” or any other faith or religion,  has a right to “obliterate” any other faith, people, religion or Country … the Imam does recognize, doesn’t he, that such a concept is not “inherently compatible with American life”.  

10). Will you specifically acknowledge that those individuals who choose not to believe in the “One True God” and choose to pursue forms of worship such as; Animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism or those who choose not to pursue any religion at all, should be left to their personal freedom of expression, whatever it might be and that these individuals should never be put in fear of their life because of the choice they make and will you condemn those who will not acknowledge this universal right?  

11). Was the execution of Saddam Hussein for “crimes against humanity” a just and acceptable action under Islamic Law as you understand that law?

12). You have expressed an unusual position on the United Nations sanctions against Iraq; using those sanctions to justify the attack on innocent civilians in the WTC on 911 because of the “blood on American hands” that you associate with the United Nation’s Iraqi sanctions. 

The United Nations has recently initiated a host of sanctions against Iran. Will those sanctions serve as a justification in your mind if other attacks are launched by extremist Islamic Militants against innocent American civilians? 

Preparations are almost complete ... Gather the stones

Obama’s AG Holder Scuttles Prosecution of USS Cole Case – Victims Being Denied Justice

US DOJ scuttles prosecution bid of alleged USS Cole bomber

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri

WASHINGTON — The Obama Administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the October 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing.

The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major Al Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden.

In a filing this week in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said that “no charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to al-Nashiri in the near future.’’

The statement, tucked into a motion to dismiss a petition by Nashiri’s attorneys, suggests that the prospect of further military trials for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has all but ground to a halt, much as the administration’s plan to try the accused plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in federal court has stalled.

Only two cases are moving forward at Guantanamo Bay, and both were sworn and referred for trial by the time Obama took office.

In January 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates directed the Convening Authority for Military Commissions to stop referring cases for trial, an order that 20 months later has not been rescinded.

 

Military officials said a team of prosecutors in the Nashiri case has been ready go to trial for some time. And several months ago, military officials seemed confident that Nashiri would be arraigned this summer.

“It’s politics at this point,’’ said one military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy.

He said he thinks the administration does not want to proceed against a high-value detainee without some prospect of civilian trials for other major figures at Guantanamo Bay.

A White House official disputed that.

“We are confident that the reformed military commissions are a lawful, fair, and effective prosecutorial forum and that the Department of Defense will handle the referrals in an appropriate manner consistent with the interests of justice,’’ said the official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Defense Department issued a statement yesterday saying the case is not stalled. “Prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions are actively investigating the case against Mr. al-Nashiri and are developing charges against him,’’ it said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/08/27/us_scuttles_prosecution_bid_of_alleged_uss_cole_bomber/